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The paradox that results from the time travel situation described
earlier is a contradiction.  The presence of a contradiction indicates
falsehood.  Something is wrong.  This can't be.

Now, finding out just what is wrong, that is another question.  If we
permitted the travel, but not the interaction with your grandmother,
would that solve the problem?  I do not think so.  This is because
*ANY* interaction results in a change of state in the system as a
whole.  Even observation is really an interaction, since energy must
be exchanged between the observable and the observer for an
observation to be made.

Thus, if you travelled back in time and even so much as saw anything
-- even so much as allowed a photon to strike your body anywhere and
be absorbed or reflected -- you would have imparted a change of state
onto the system you were observing, and hence you would have changed
history; therefore, time is monotonic!  (Translation: time moves
forward only, never backwards.)  QED

The only solution to the paradox is for negative time travel to be
impossible.  Now forward time travel?  That's another question...

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
Robert Jay Brown III rj@eli.elilabs.com  http://www.elilabs.com 1 847 705-0424
Elijah Laboratories Inc.;  37 South Greenwood Avenue;  Palatine, IL 60067-6328
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